On November 21, 2014, Kleinschmidt announced he would submit his resignation in order to take up the position of general counsel for Sid Miller who was recently elected as the Texas Agriculture Commissioner. No date for his official resignation was announced, but a special election for his seat took place on January 6, 2015.[1][2]

Biography

Kleinschmidt graduated from Lexington High School in 1975, earned a Bachelor's degree with honors from Texas A&M University in 1978, and earned a Juris Doctorate from Baylor University in 1981. Shortly after receiving his law degree and passing the Texas State Bar in 1981, Kleinschmidt joined the private practice firm of Schneider, Krugler, Kleinschmidt & Weiser, P.C. based in Giddings, Texas, where he is both a share holder as well as an attorney. As a litigator, he specialized in municipal law, real estate, oil and gas, creation of business entities, wills, probate, trusts, estate and asset protection planning, litigation, collections, banking and local counsel for non-resident law firms.

Kleinschmidt has practiced law for 27 years in Central Texas, including as a longtime city attorney for the cities of Giddings and Lexington.

Committee assignments

2013-2014

At the beginning of the 2013 legislative session, Kleinschmidt served on the following committees:

Elections

2014

Elections for all 150 seats in the Texas House of Representatives took place in 2014. A primary election took place on March 4, 2014. Those candidates who did not receive 50% or more of the vote in their party primary on March 4 faced an additional May 27 primary runoff. The general election was held on November 4, 2014. The signature-filing deadline for candidates wishing to run in these elections was December 9, 2013. Incumbent Tim Kleinschmidt was unopposed in the Republican primary. Carolyn Banks was unopposed in the Democratic primary. Banks was defeated by Kleinschmidt in the general election.[14][15][16]

2010

Kleinschmidt won re-election to the 17th house district seat in the general election on November 6, 2012.[17] He defeated Pat Jacobs, who ran for the seat on the Democratic ticket, and Travis Hill, who campaigned for the seat as a Libertarian.

Campaign donors

Comprehensive donor information for Kleinschmidt is available dating back to 2006. Based on available campaign finance records, Kleinschmidt raised a total of $1,859,682 during that time period. This information was last updated on July 19, 2013.[18]

Scorecards

Legislative scorecards are used to evaluate elected public officials based on voting record. Some scorecards are created by political advocacy groups with a focus on specific issues, while others are developed by newspapers and are broad in scope. Scorecards are meant to be used as a tool for voters to have a quick picture of whether their views align with a particular legislator's record.

Because scorecards can be specific to particular issues or general to a state’s legislative term, for example, each report should be considered on its own merits. Each entity that publishes these reports uses different methodologies and definitions for the terms used.

Please see our writing guidelines if you would like to add results from an individual scorecard to this legislator's profile.

2013

In 2013, the Texas State Legislature was in its 83rd legislative session from January 8 through May 27. Thirty minutes after the regular session ended, Governor Rick Perry called legislators back for a special session starting that evening.[19] Two additional called sessions were held from July 1 through July 30 and July 30 through August 5.[20]

Mark P. Jones is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University. He builds a ranking of Texas state representatives each year based on their votes from the previous session. Jones then ranks legislators based on how liberal and conservative they are according to legislative history.

Mark P. Jones is the Chair of the Department of Political Science at Rice University. He builds a ranking of Texas state representatives each year based on their votes from the previous session. Jones then ranks legislators based on how liberal and conservative they are according to legislative history.

Empower Texans Fiscal Responsibility Index

Empower Texans produces the Fiscal Responsibility Index as "a measurement of how lawmakers perform on size and role of government issues." The index uses "exemplar votes on core budget and free enterprise issues that demonstrate legislators' governing philosophy." Legislators were graded along a 0 through 100 scale in 2013 and on an A through F grading scale in 2011.

2013

Kleinschmidt received a score of 66.1 in the 2013 Fiscal Responsibility Index, compared to the grade of C+ that Kleinschmidt received for the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index.

2011

Tim Kleinschmidt received a grade of C+ on the 2011 Fiscal Responsibility Index.

Personal

Kleinschmidt and his wife, Anna, have three children. Kleinschmidt is a member and president of the Lee County Bar Association, and belongs to the Texas & Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, the Texas Wildlife Association and numerous other organizations.

Controversies

Campaign promise accusation

The first joint appearance of the major party candidates for the Texas House District 17 seat in 2008 was canceled at the last minute after the Democratic nominee, Donnie Dippel, accused Kleinschmidt of reneging on a supposed campaign promise. Dippel chose not to take the stage at the forum after it had been reported to the Democratic candidate that a staffer for opponent's campaign was in the crowd with a video camera. Dippel's campaign claimed that both sides had agreed to a " stipulation against videotaping their opponents, to prevent clips from showing up in attack ads;" Kleinschmidt's camp, however, denied such a deal had been made.[21] Organizers of the forum remarked that while Dippel had raised concerns about videotaping, it was never established in the ground rules for the debate.

Recent news

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